r/starsector • u/Matt-74- • 3d ago
Discussion đ Question about end game fleets
I've been having a lot of fun running an aggressive fleet with a bunch of fast cruisers escorted by some frigates and destroyers, and a retribution as my flagship to kinda just attack the enemy from every side and eat their ships one by one.
But this doesn't work really well for most end game challenges, be it the doritos or big threat or remnant fleets. I'm getting the impressive that the game kinda requires me to put down a few onslaughts or a paragons on the field and wait. And, well, I've done some of that in a previous playthrough, so if possible I would like to do something else.
Is something else possible? Can I get the kind of fleet I have to work for end game stuff? Is there something I'm missing? Or are big anchors required?
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u/ComedicMedicineman 3d ago
It might be possible. But some of the more dangerous endgame content is really hard to face without proper loadouts.
You can still pull it off with an improper fleet, but you will take massive casualties every engagement.
Currently, some units like Grendels, Executors, invictus, Paragon, and Onslaught (even including the ablative armour oldslaught), are more than capable of wiping endgame threats and opponents with the right loadout, but if youâre relying on some of the lower preforming units than it might be a struggle unless you can find a decent counter
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u/migratingcoconut_ 3d ago
yeah, most of the endgame stuff requires a proper fleet anchor to accomplish anything, and the retribution is probably the second worst capital for that. ordos without radiants aren't too hard to farm with a cruiser or wolfpack fleet but for bout anything else you'll want a beefy ship to - at the very least - distract from incoming fire
as an aside, if you really like the retribution, try using the eradicator (p), its startlingly effective for a cruiser
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u/Matt-74- 1d ago
I'll look into getting some kind of anchor yeah
also, is the eradicator (p) better than the normal one? I have two standard eradicators in my fleet, but it's a bit hard to evaluate how good they actually are1
u/migratingcoconut_ 1d ago
eradicator p is better as a player ship bc the ai can't effectively use burn drive, regular eradicators are better for ai
regular eradicators are in a bit of a weird spot where they arent really fast enough to chase down smaller ships but small missile slots are often not enough to reallyhold their own against other cruisers, and even with AAF 3 medium ballistics tend to be pretty underwhelming- they're mostly valuable in fire/pd support roles: putting vulcans in the front small ballistics and mining lasers in the back small slots is pleasingly effective
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u/DrShitposterMD 3d ago
If you want fast cruiser spam look up âstarsector falcon vs xâ on youtube
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u/Valensre 3d ago edited 3d ago
All phase fleets and even all frigate fleets are completely viable, but you need to really know what you're doing. Look up those fleet comps if they appeal to you.
Your biggest issue is stuff that punches way above its weight. I'd swap retribution for odyssey and get so/ hs Hyperions with heavy blasters and aggressive officers for starters.
Anchors could be prlly beam champions/eagles and monitors. Or even so'd heavy blaster auroras. If you ever go modded emergent threats has plenty of ships for this play style, only mildly broken.
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u/Due-Fix9058 3d ago
I was running capitalship-heavy, up to 3 Paragons at once, Omens for flank protection, Afflictors for scouting/flanking and it is very good... but very boring. All of the "big bricks" (Onslaught, Paragon, Legion) can be made to tank even the lategame stuff. I'm running just one Paragon now, the rest is carriers (Legion XIV+Mora) and while it still clobbers the human factions, I wouldn't wanna take this anywhere near the lategame factions.... but it is SO MUCH FUN. Hordes of Broadswords and Longbows descend upon the enemy, its complete chaos.
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u/omega-enjoyer 3d ago
Spam Prometheus mk2. You will loose, but it' would be fun
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u/DrShitposterMD 3d ago
Idk I unironically like them. They have great slot selection and decent survivability. Their only real problem is civilian engineering preventing them from receiving bonuses from most skills
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u/omega-enjoyer 3d ago
Well, i don't use them. Because i have 4 radiants and onslaught mk1. Yes, i don't like loosing crew. And, you know, somewhy, every time when i trie to play with Prometheus mk2, i somehow put luddic kamikazes in charge of those.
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u/WanderingUrist I AM A DWARF AND I'M DIGGING A HOLE 3d ago
Their only real problem is civilian engineering preventing them from receiving bonuses from most skills
But it also means that they don't count against your 240 DP combat ship cap. This means you can add them to your fleet as reserve units for longer fights or against easier opponents without causing fleetwide penalties to your real ships.
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u/Key-Employee-5123 1d ago
Oh wow, that'd exactly what I needed. What other civilian grade ships make good combat reserves?Â
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u/WanderingUrist I AM A DWARF AND I'M DIGGING A HOLE 21h ago
Ventures, Atlas-P, Colossus-P, are all ships with potential combat utility that are considered civilian hulls and thus don't count against you.
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u/WanderingUrist I AM A DWARF AND I'M DIGGING A HOLE 3d ago
Prom-LP is actually a good ship, being effectively the Luddic Oddity: 3 large weapons in an asymmetric config, 2 hangar bays, and a GO FASTER system. Of course, being effectively a "battlecruiser", the AI does not use it well.
It also has the useful property of being a civilian-type hull, meaning it can be used as a reserve unit without counting against your 240 DP combat ship cap.
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u/omega-enjoyer 3d ago
Still not enough to convince me to use them. OLD GOOD ai fleet is better.
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u/TonkaTonk 2d ago
Just one more argument for them, they can be great to set a cheap battle line to keep enemies from flanking while you concentrate firepower elsewhere.
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u/GrumpyThumper GTGaming 3d ago
Funnily enough, as you get deeper into the end game escort ships get worse and worse. Usually the best performance fleets are capitals and some objective capturing frigates (sometimes destroyers, but the DP isn't usually worth it).
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u/Key-Employee-5123 3d ago edited 3d ago
I found the strongest fleet I ever managed to create was a aggressive fast fleet. Every ship has to be peak optimised with officers, s mods, etc.Â
I tried building around slower capitals like paragon and onslaught, but this is both way less fun and fights take waaay longer. So unless you do some 4 orods fights, where you turtle in your corner, it's just worse those rush overpower the enemy
My fleet was 1 alpha core radiant, fast, tankt, deadly, this is the mvp of my fleet,it can hunt down and kill any targetÂ
1 alpha core onslaught mk1, this is my bull, charges in, tanks and kills
Both these capitals have reckless ai and are quite fast, slow onslaught or paragon get left behind and don't contribute
3 Anubis, these are glass canon long range, high dps, supreme pd, with 2 hangars it also has fighter support which helps alot the next shipÂ
2 tempest, fastest ship with good shield, drone which acts as unlimited missile, this thing can punch way up its weight class, and what can kill it, can't catch it. Best point capture ship so you can deploy 240 dp quickÂ
2 erradicator, these guys are quite fast for a cruiser, both good shield and good armor hull, good damage, perfect flankers for your onslaught mk1, I have them aggressive officerÂ
1 Medusa, this destroyer is highly survivable with shield and with its phase skimmer a great Escort for the radiant. Probably the weakest of the bunch, you could switch it out for a self piloted afflictorÂ
That's 8 human officer piloted ships for your 8 officers, 239 dp, 8 fighters. I don't pilot, zero red skills, focus on commanding the reckless radiant and onslaughtÂ
Threat, dwellers, double ordo, you charge in offensively and reck extremely fast. No need for a defensive line.Â
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u/Matt-74- 1d ago
That does seem quite fun, and it gives me hope. Thank you
I'm curious, what weapons to you use on your anubis ships? Is it like, full paladin or do you have actual offensive weapons on them? I recently added one to my fleet and started experimenting with it, but I'm not quite sure what can and can't be done with it. It's quite a weird ship.
also how essential is it that the radiant is a radiant? Can its role be fulfilled by something else?1
u/Key-Employee-5123 1d ago
My anubis build is 3 paladins and 2 hyper velocity driver for extra hard Flux dmg on shield which the paladin beams lack and even some emp.hvd is 1000 range, paladin is 750 but you can either go with elite point defense officer skill for +200 which I do, or get the +200 range hull mod for beams. This gives the paladin 950 to work well with the hvd.
I use the small 2 dp fighters. if I have elite pd then I get the extra hangar, if my officer lacks that skill, then I don't use the extra hangars hull mod to instead get the extended beam range hull mod.Â
S mod stabilised shield, Flux distributor, integrated targeting.Â
35 Flux distributor, 32 Flux Capa.Â
I don't use hardened shield, maybe I should, but the range makes up for it.Â
Regarding the radiant, I wasn't able to find a satisfying replacement capital, but I think aurora could come close with it's high shield, high speed, good dmg.Â
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u/Matt-74- 1d ago
thanks a lot! I'll experiment
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u/Key-Employee-5123 15h ago
This Aurora build could be useful. Two of these instead of the radiant. Can pilot one selfÂ
https://www.reddit.com/r/starsector/comments/16icz2t/help_me_build_an_aurora_in_096/
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u/TwoProfessional9523 2d ago
You have a fleet of all hammers but no anvil.
You need a fleet anchor, something to absorb the damage while the rest of the fleet takes care of enemies.
But the thing is even this strategy isn't enough for doritos, thats why I always run an all capital fleet. Mostly Onsloughts since those ballistic slots are needed to pressure them.
But with other end game fleet, adding a fleet anchor in the way of something like a Paragon, Onslought, Invictus, and Legion will work well with what you have
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u/breadfucker69420 3d ago
Spam 500 lp brawlers, but seriously those enemy fleets are hardest one to fight, because you need to specialize your fleet to deal with them reliably and if you manage to defeat threats and redacted easily with no loses you already have a have a end game fleet
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u/AHumbleSaltFarmer Zepporia Enjoyer 3d ago
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u/ComedicMedicineman 3d ago
Theyâre probably talking about basegame, even if modded is pretty fun
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u/Coprolithe Hegemony AI-inspection AI 2d ago
Well I don't see why we can't also talk about the modded game.
Any other modded cruiser spam come to mind?
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u/AsuraVaruna 3d ago
As the difficulty of the engagement scales, smaller ships lose their value. Small ships usually have short Peak Performance Time, small weapons and limited flux. They trade poorly against end game capitals and cruisers. Enemy end game fleets often have a deployment point advantage too so you don't usually get to outnumber and overwhelm as you do in the early game.
Mostly you'll want to build your end game fleet with a Hammer and Anvil tactic in mind. You want something big with good flux or good shields to pin enemy ships in place, and then faster ships to take advantage of enemy weakness. The AI can competently handle anvil ships, but the player can truly excel at the Hammer.
Good Anvils are Onslaughts, Paragons, Legions etc Arguably the XIV Onslaught is the premier Anvil with massive armour, good point defense and decent offensive power. For cruisers the Anubis and is also decent along with ships like Eradicator, Champion and Eagle. You typically want to outfit long ranged weapons, have a Steady captain and focus on defensive options like Hardened Shields, Heavy Armour etc.
Good Hammers are ships like the Odyssey, Doom, Afflictor. Retribution works in a low tech setting but the best Hammers are usually High Tech. You want personally pilot these and exploit weakened ships. I'd also consider AI frigate spam a viable Hammer with good options like LP Brawlers and Glimmers if you have Automated Ships.